As I have NIK software, Lightroom and a K5ii I am interested in your experiment.

My main concern is that NIK plugins only work a tiff it creates from the RAW file. I often use Viveza or Silver Efex AFTER I have gotten all that i can out of the RAW file in Lightroom.

You are doing your pre-sharpening before any other processing, right?

If I were to pre-sharpen the files with NIK sharpener I would lose the ability to use Lightroom's tools on the RAW files where I suspect they are most effective. I haven't done tests, but I suspect that Lightroom can to a better job recovering highlights or detail from the shadows with RAW files than it can from pre-sharpened TIFFs.

Do you agree that you lose something by tossing aside your RAW files at the very beginning?

Or, do you think you can save pre-sharpening until after you've finished processing the RAW files?